The Lowry High School girls basketball team may still be finding its way on offense in the early going, but defense is currently leading the way for the defending state champions.
That was the case last Saturday as the Lady Bucks traveled to Reno to face Damonte Ranch. Lowry erased a two-point deficit at halftime and held the Mustangs to 12 points in the second half in the 30-28 victory.
Lowry (2-3) shot just 21 percent from the field (10-for-47) and was 10-for-16 from the free throw line.
"We just can't make any baskets right now," said LHS coach Chelsea Cabatbat. "We have gone back to the fundamentals of shooting the ball. We get impatient at times and when we get tired, the easiest thing to do is launch up shots, even know they are not the best. We need to slow down and execute our offense."
Lowry jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the first quarter, only to see Damonte Ranch turn the tables and hold the Lady Bucks to four points in the second quarter. The Mustangs went in to the break with a 16-14 advantage.
Lowry came out of halftime and almost equaled its total from the first half with 11 points in the third quarter. The Lady Bucks grabbed a two-point lead with eight minutes to go and made that hold up in the fourth period. Both squads only scored five points apiece in the final eight minutes of play.
"We are doing a nice job defensively," Cabatbat said. "They have a couple of nice post players and a good guard. We were able to shut them down. The effort is good and we are getting ourselves into playing shape. We are turning things around and if we can get going on offense, we will be OK."
Alyssa Dendary had eight points, three rebounds and two assists for the Lady Bucks. Kylee McClellan and Jasmine Marchand each had six points and Marchand added six rebounds. Payton Naveran had four points to go with a team-high 12 rebounds and two blocks and Jillian Albright also scored four points. Meg Montero rounded out the scoring with two points.
Lowry will make its home debut this weekend and also begin Division I-A North play. The Lady Bucks host South Tahoe on Friday at 5 p.m. The Vikings beat the Lady Bucks in overtime last year in the league opener. Lowry closes out the weekend against Dayton on Saturday at 1 p.m.
"These are our two most important games of December," Cabatbat said. "We know what happened last year at South Tahoe. We have to be ready to play four quarters and when we have a team down, put them away. We can not have mental breakdowns. Right now, we want to be 2-0 going into January."[[In-content Ad]]
